This 314-acre area is mostly timbered. About 87 acres were recently added to the northeast part of the area. Management of this area includes timber harvest and limited row crops and food plots.
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Safety Concerns
Name
Edible
Name
Skin irritating
Scientific Name
Podophyllum peltatum
Family
Berberidaceae (barberries)
Description
Mayapple is a common spring perennial wildflower that makes its biggest impression with its leaves, which resemble umbrellas arising from a single stalk. It often grows in colonies from creeping, branching underground rhizomes.
Only a single flower develops per plant, and only on plants having 2 leaves. The flower arises from the axil of the 2 leaf stems; it is white, with 6–9 waxy, spreading petals and a green, clublike pistil; flowers can be 3 inches across. A rare pink-flowering form exists.
Blooms March–May.
The leaves are large, to 1 foot wide, palmately lobed with many deep notches to near the middle of the leaf, the lobes with coarse teeth, arising from a smooth stem to 1½ feet tall.
The fruit (“may apple”) is egg-shaped, to 2 inches long, pale green to yellow, botanically a berry.
Plants with only 1 leaf will not flower or fruit; only plants with 2 or 3 leaves form flowers and fruits.
Other Common Names
Mandrake
May-Apple
May Apple
Size
Height: 1 to 1½ feet.
Where To Find
Statewide.
Habitat and Conservation
Occurs in moist or dry, open woods, ledges of bluffs, sometimes persisting in fields and pastures or on roadsides adjacent to woods. Often found growing in small colonies.
Status
Native Missouri wildflower.
Human Connections
The leaves, stems, roots, and unripe fruits are poisonous. Various parts of the plant have historic and current medicinal applications.
The fully ripe fruits are generally considered edible and can be eaten raw or made into beverages, jellies, and preserves. Mayapple fruits were an important food for Native Americans. Eaten in excess, even the ripe fruits may prove toxic.
Handling rootstocks can cause dermatitis in some people.
For gardeners and landscapers, mayapple is a great native plant for naturalizing in woodland areas. Its springtime colonies of curious, foot-high, "green umbrellas" are quite interesting, suggestive of a fairy garden. Note that the plants go dormant after flowering and fruiting, and the foliage withers in early summer.
Ecosystem Connections
Mayapple flowers are pollinated by bumblebees and other bees with long tongues.
Only a few kinds of insects feed on the leaves (notably two particular species of noctuid moths). Virtually no mammals eat the plant due to its bitterness and toxicity.
Opossums, raccoons, squirrels, box turtles, and other fruit-loving animals may eat the ripe fruits, and they no doubt disperse the seeds to new locations in their excrement.
Some of the closest relatives of mayapple growing in Missouri are shrubs, including the introduced Japanese barberry (an ornamental that escapes cultivation) and two native barberries that are rarely encountered. Another Missouri member of the barberry family, blue cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides), is a perennial herb with blue, berrylike fruits scattered nearly statewide. None of these will be confused with mayapple. Details of flower and fruit anatomy reflect plant genetic relationships better than leaves, stems, and growth habit.
The only other species in genus Podophyllum occurs in east Asia.
Mayapple leaves often show yellow or orange spots from mayapple rust (Allodus podophylli), a fungal disease. Although it can disfigure the leaves, it normally causes little harm to the mayapple plants, which are its only host.
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Media Gallery
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Caption
Mayapple makes its biggest impression with its leaves, which resemble umbrellas arising from a single stalk. Mayapple often grows in colonies. It is a common spring wildflower.
Credit
Julianna Schroeder
Right to Use
Use of this image is restricted to MDC only
Image
Caption
The whitish, waxy flowers of mayapple form beneath the leaves, at the axil where the stalk splits into leaves. Plants with only 1 leaf will not flower or fruit; only plants with 2 or 3 leaves can form flowers and fruits.
Credit
Julianna Schroeder
Right to Use
Use of this image is restricted to MDC only
Image
Caption
Although mayapples are normally white, a rare pink-flowering form exists.
Credit
Noppadol Paothong
Right to Use
Photo by Noppadol Paothong , courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation
Image
Caption
Mayapple leaves often show yellow or orange spots from mayapple rust (Allodus podophylli), a fungal disease. Although it can disfigure the leaves, it normally causes little harm to the mayapple plants, which are its only host.
Credit
Julianna Schroeder
Right to Use
Use of this image is restricted to MDC only
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Where to See Species
Clark Conservation Areas original warranty deed is dated 1978. The purchase was lengthy and complicated because the property was scattered across Clark County in 12 parcels of land.
This area fronts about two miles of Mussel Fork Creek.
Arrow-Wood Conservation Area is located near the center of Shelby County, 2.5 miles north of Shelbina.
You might think of Forest 44 as your "Gateway to the Ozarks" from St. Louis County. It lies right along I-44 corridor that conveys travelers to some of the Show-Me State's most scenic places.
About Wildflowers, Grasses and Other Nonwoody Plants in Missouri
A very simple way of thinking about the green world is to divide the vascular plants into two groups: woody and nonwoody (or herbaceous). But this is an artificial division; many plant families include some species that are woody and some that are not. The diversity of nonwoody vascular plants is staggering! Think of all the ferns, grasses, sedges, lilies, peas, sunflowers, nightshades, milkweeds, mustards, mints, and mallows — weeds and wildflowers — and many more!